FIRE + WATER

A red circle with a nude pregnant woman at the bottom. Her womb is transparent and there is water inside with the tail of Nx̌ax̌aitkʷ'. The water and Nx̌ax̌aitkʷ' trail around the edge of the circle with orange circles. In the center, there are salmon and turtles swimming in a circle
“Sacred Water” courtesy of Coralee Miller

Creative and Critical perspectives from the Okanagan watershed and beyond

Friday 13 May, 9 am – 4 pm

Woodhaven Eco-Culture Centre, Kelowna

Read about our experience at FIRE+WATER here.

Videos of the afternoon performances are below!

“Fire and Water” will be a one-day symposium of workshops, storytelling, talks, performances, and other forms of sharing creative and critical perspectives on water ecologies and fire practices in the Okanagan watershed and beyond. This event will take place at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre on syilx territory, primarily outdoors (weather permitting). Workshops will take place on site while remote participation options via livestreaming will be made available for talks and performances. 

This event will be convened by the FEELed Lab (at UBC Okanagan) with support from ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment), the Sncewips Heritage Museum (Westbank First Nation), FCCS, (Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies), and PHH (Public Humanities Hub) at UBC Okanagan. 

Spaces are limited so advanced registration is essential!

A red poster with a nude pregnant woman at the bottom right. Her womb is transparent and there is water and Nx̌ax̌aitkʷ' inside. The water bursts out of her womb and trails up the left side of the poster with salmon jumping.

PROGRAM:

9 am – Welcome and opening prayer – Pamela and Wilfred (Grouse) Barnes (Westbank First Nation)

Morning workshop 1: Sketchbooking on the Land – Coralee Miller (Sncewips Heritage Museum of Westbank First Nation, FEELed Lab artist-in-residence)

Morning workshop 2: Performance workshop Pintigan: Thinking and Embodying the Watersheds – Dennis Gupa (Performer and Theatre Director, University of Winnipeg)

Coffee, tea and light snacks will be available throughout the morning.

12:30 – 1:30 LUNCH (light lunch provided to registered participants, including vegan and GF options)

1:30 pm – Storytelling and conversation with Madeline Terbasket (Syilx, Ho-chunk and Anishinaabe two-spirit performing artist)

2: 30 pm – Poems, stories and other creative combustions with

  • Taylor Lezard (En’owkin Centre)
  • Adeniyi Asiyanbi (UBC Okanagan)
  • Rina Garcia Chua (poet, UBC Okanagan)

4:00 pm – Closing + optional walk, contemplations, conversation in Woodhaven Regional Park

Coffee, tea and light refreshments will be available throughout the day.

Participant bios and descriptions of sessions coming soon!

NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY:

This event will take place outdoors, so please dress for the weather! The terrain at Woodhaven EcoCulture Center is a mixture of grass, gravel and dirt path. It is flat, but can be uneven in places.

Port-a-potty and handwashing station will be situated adjacent to the event space.

Please let us know if you have any accessibility requests and we will get in touch with you to ensure that suitable arrangements have been made.

TRANSPORTATION, DIRECTIONS:

Parking is limited (and cars should be parked outside the gate), so we encourage carpooling, bus and bike!

How to get there: Woodhaven Ecoculture Centre is located in Kelowna’s lower mission neighbourhood. The entrance is located 2 blocks south of the entrance to Woodhaven Regional Park and can be accessed via bicycle, bus, or personal vehicle. 

Using the address “969 Raymer Road” on a map app will get you there!

If cycling or driving, approaching from Gordon Drive, turn west onto McClure and then south (right) onto Raymer Road. Once on Raymer Road, there are three turns—east (left), south (right), and east (left)—that will take you to the end of the road which, even after all of that turning, is still called Raymer. Where the asphalt ends, Raymer Road becomes an unmarked gravel path navigable by most bicycles.

Parking: While the path is wide enough to drive a small car though the trees, parking at the centre is limited. Please park along Raymer Road (in front of the houses, NOT in the cul-de-sac or against the fence) and walk up the path. If you need to drive into the park for accessibility reasons, just let us know! 

If you wish to travel by bus, BC transit route 17 begins at H2O Centre and drives south. The stop closest to Woodhaven is 870 Block Gordon Drive, from which you can access a wooden bridge over Bellevue Creek that exits onto Raymer Road approximately 200m west from its end, where the aforementioned path begins. In total, the walk from the bus stop to the Ecocultural Centre is approximately 500m. 

Please be advised that there may be a significant amount of botanical debris on the path. Pedestrians and cyclists heed caution. The path meanders approximately 300 metres to the Ecocultural Centre buildings.  

This event is supported by ASLE (the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment); the Sncewips Heritage Museum of Westbank First Nation; UBCO Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies; the Public Humanities Hub at UBCO; and The FEELed Lab.

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Banner image: Part of “Sacred Water” Courtesy of Coralee Miller (please do not reproduce without explicit permission from the artist)

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